Your Monster is billed as a horror-fantasy, with notes of a rom-com, featuring a Broadway hopeful (Melissa Barrera) discovering a hunky beast (Tommy Dewey) in her closet. Sounds wild, right? What if I told you writer/director Caroline Lindy plays everything “straight”? What if I told you that the film is so quiet, you can hear the emptiness between lines of dialogue? Granted, this is a deliberate choice to play up the film’s quirkier qualities, but…
By: Addison Wylie Preceding an amicable exchange between ex-lovers, Andy Goodrich (Michael Keaton) is asked by his former wife Ann (Andie MacDowell) how he’s doing. “I’m okay,” Andy answers. “You’re always okay,” Ann teases. She isn’t wrong. Throughout Goodrich, the audience observes Andy doing okay. He occasionally has an awkward conversation that sometimes references his past as a flawed father but, otherwise, he’s a well-respected and levelheaded dude.
Donald Trump has denounced The Apprentice. Not to be confused with his hit reality show of the past, The Apprentice is a docudrama chronicling the relationship between Trump and lawyer Roy Cohn. But, it seems as though the former president has misinterpreted Ali Abbasi’s movie as a biopic on his life as a businessman-turn-infamous mogul. There are biographical elements to The Apprentice , but the focus isn’t specific enough to be a Trump biopic. If Trump had stepped back, he would’ve seen that…
The assumption to presume there’s a personal connection between director Ellen Kuras and photographer Lee Miller, the subject of Kuras’ feature-length narrative debut Lee, isn’t that rash. An obvious interest for camerawork is shared between Kuras and Miller, and the passion for the craft may have also rubbed off on star Kate Winslet (who Kuras has worked with previously on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and A Little Chaos, and is credited as an executive producer on Lee). …
The Forest Hills is a pulverizing experience. The audience is constantly led astray by too many dead ends in the story. But on the other hand, Shelley Duvall. Movie goers are senselessly deafened by an ungainly and painful lead performance by Chiko Mendez. But then again, Shelley Duvall. Starlets from classic horror movies appear in extended cameos to bait movie buffs along, but their performances are flat. But also, Shelley Duvall.
In The Outrun, Rona (Little Women’s Saoirse Ronan) finds herself using alcohol as a coping mechanism. However, she’s also aware that she may be abusing the escape from reality. Trying her best to occupy herself with passions, relationships and changes in scenery, her inability to control urges to binge drink distances herself from her parents and her selfless boyfriend Daynin (Papa Essiedu), as well as places her in harm’s way.
By: Addison Wylie Steven Kostanski is a gifted filmmaker who can effortlessly emulate styles and fads of the past. But for as resourceful and accurate as he is, Kostanski has a habit of working in reverse; placing more attention on the final product rather than thinking about who his work should be geared towards. However, Kostanski’s recent sci-fi/buddy comedy Psycho Goreman suggested that the writer/director was considering his viewers more. His latest indie Frankie Freako, a throwback with similar…
With an impressively involving story using multiple methods to scare the viewer, Hold Your Breath is just the ticket for this year’s Halloween season.
You Gotta Believe is a sports movie that’s as hokey as you could, well, believe. Based around the true story of Little Leaguers who made an impression on sports fans when the team earned a ranking in 2002’s Little League Baseball World Series championship, You Gotta Believe pulls out all the stops to grab families by their heartstrings. However, the film doesn’t feel manipulative. As he exhibited in his heavier sports drama 12 Mighty Orphans, director Ty Roberts…
